Mexico, March 31st, 1605.
(There is a Rubrica.)
A. D. 1605.
Sire:
I sent your Majesty one of your royal Cedulas dated in Valladolid, April 3rd, in which I laid before your Majesty the necessity and want these poor married men are in. It is impossible for them to support themselves; there are seven and eight in a family to be fed on the father’s rations. As I have before stated to you, it would be a great charity as well as a service to God to help them that they may not perish. This may be remedied when the other people arrive. I can then give permission to the valetudinarians and sick to return home, your Majesty having sent as a reward for so many years of service the means to defray the cost of the voyage. I can give according to the condition of each one and to the married men who remain here in service please order an extra half ration for each child with some other slight assistance while they serve as soldiers and their daughters are too young to marry. I assure you that aside from being a great charity it will be no more than justice, as they are among the best soldiers I have ever seen on land or sea. Among the necessities your Majesty may see proper to relieve is the suffering of a lady of standing, widow of two captains who served many years in this Province and who had charge of it in the absence of the Governors. Aid given here will be one of the greatest of charities, as before stated. The negroes who were here for over forty years, working in the Havana forces, have died, and it will be well to send about a dozen more and three or four negro women.
Your order that I should not collect from the New Spain more than was necessary I have carried out so far, and I wish to remind you to send a trustworthy accountant as the one at present occupying that office is not fitted for it. During the residence of Gonzalo Menendez Canso, the Treasurer, Juan Menendez, asked and exacted that duty should be paid your Majesty on some amber which Bartolaine Perez and Gaspar Martin, soldiers, had found in a fish’s craw, and with promises which Gonzalo Menendez made the soldiers, he palliated them and said the duty must be paid according to one of the chapters of royal instruction. At that time we could not ascertain if it were true. The said soldiers had already put in a plea to the said Gonzalo Menendez and as interested parties could not be witnesses in these investigations. The other person through whose hands it must pass was Lieutenant Fabeicio Lopez, and he was not here. He has returned now and makes the accompanying declaration, which you can place with the declaration of the soldiers, and you can have your duties and give the soldiers what was taken from them, not allowing them to make a manifestation. The Treasurer has asked me to let him use a permit he has to go to that kingdom on business and solicitations. I have not allowed him to use it, because we are so much in need of men and there are so few I can put my hand on in case of need. God protect your Majesty.
Pedro Ibarra.
Dec. 26th, 1605, St. Augustine, Florida.